In February 2023, Brazil experienced its largest rainfall event on record, which devastated the northern coast of the state of São Paulo. This event caused landslides, floods, and numerous fatalities, making it even more tragic than previous disasters in the region, which already have been elaborated on in another blog post. The situation highlights the urgent need for effective emergency manageme ...[Read More]
In the past year, the world has witnessed many severe disasters caused by multiple hazards whose impacts overlapped in time and space. February this year, two severe earthquakes hit Syria and Turkey shortly after each other, followed by two more powerful earthquakes and over a hundred aftershocks in subsequent weeks [1,2]. The disaster caused over 48 thousand fatalities, and many people are still ...[Read More]
Interested in being actively involved in shaping the EGU NH Division activities and organising the annual General Assembly? Are you working in the Natural Hazards field? Then keep reading… we need you! Our Division is seeking: a new Science Officer for the NH10 Multi-Hazards sub-division a new Social Media Coordinator For both positions, the term is fixed for a two-year period with a possible ext ...[Read More]
CoastSnap is a global citizen science project aiming at monitoring the changes in our coastlines due to processes such as storms, rising sea levels, and human activities using smartphones. We will discover more about this promising project by chatting today with Dr Mitchell Harley, founder of the CoastSnap program. Mitchell is a Researcher and Senior Lecturer in the School of Civil and Environment ...[Read More]
COVID-19 has been a disruptive ‘tsunami’ that most countries were not prepared to handle. The pandemic has been representing a global slow-onset long-lasting disaster that has drastically challenged all emergency management systems worldwide. The pandemic slow-onset disaster has been characterized by a prolonged emergency phase with varying intensity levels, and a cyclic behavior, where the interp ...[Read More]
The impact of natural hazards on vulnerable communities can be devastating, causing fatalities, damaging houses and livelihoods, and pushing people into poverty. These disasters make them even more vulnerable. A growing line of research identifies actions and tools to reduce vulnerability and make communities more resilient. An interesting and crucial part of this research investigates the role of ...[Read More]
Flood hazards often turn destructive and cause substantial loss of life and assets. Annually floods cause significant damage; for example, during the last decade of the 20th century, around 100,000 people lost their lives, and more than 1.4 billion people were affected [1]. Historically, flooding has been viewed as a friend and foe of human civilisations. As a good friend, floods bring nutritious, ...[Read More]
In today’s interview, we have the pleasure of talking with Dr Heidi Kreibich, lecturer at the Geography Department at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and head of the working group “Flood risk and climate adaptation” at the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). From her interest in investigating different types of flooding associated with complex physical and anthropogenic ...[Read More]
Natural hazards that impact industrial sites and result in technological accidents, causing the release of hazardous substances, are referred to as Natech events. In the popular imagination, Natech accidents are triggered by major natural hazard events. However, experience tells us that low magnitude natural events, such as lightning or heavy rains, are sufficient to cause enormous adverse effects ...[Read More]
With the Natural Hazards 101 series, we mean to bring our readers closer to the terminology often used in the field of natural hazards, but that may not be so familiar. In the first episode of the series, we focused on the definition of hazard and natural hazard. We moved then to the concepts of risk, disaster risk management, and the forecasting and modelling of natural hazards. In this episode, ...[Read More]